Sappho in Paris

History as fiction; fiction as history; though never so simply, nonetheless the fact of the matter. Time covers the brightest gems with layers of dust, so you blow with a puff of air, ever so gently, at your own risk, to reveal the original. This is a story of love in all its mutations and permutations: Eros - physical love; Philia - family and friends' love; and Agape - spiritual love, and how all three interweave and cross over. Roy Klein, an American, at thirty-three has finished all his course work and exams for his PhD from Harvard in Comparative Literature, a good field for a generalist like Roy. He's packed up and gone off to Paris, a city he loves, to write his dissertation, "Sappho & Her Circle." He's fluent in French, but can't read Ancient Greek, plus the food's much better in Paris. He meets a schoolgirl, Sophie, and they just naturally become a couple in contemporary Paris. He's writing about Sappho, who lived on the Greek island of Lesbos around 600 BCE, but it's more about a new take on Sappho's life and loves than it is about her poetry. The two tales intertwine, chapter by chapter, to show, as the French say: "Plus ça change, plus la même chose." (The more things change the more they remain the same.) For once, no war, no violence. For these two eras, 2600 years apart, were times of peace. So it's a story of many loves and many kinds of love, but definitely not a sentimental romance. Strong love, strong people, strong times. A ride on a plunging, earth-shaking horse you've probably never ridden.